SMOKING - FOR AND AGAINST

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 358, 3 May 1946, Page 23

SMOKING - FOR AND AGAINST

(Written for "The Listener’ by Dr.

H. B.

TURBOTT

Directot of the Division of School Hygiene, Health

Department )

O smoke or ‘not to smoke is always a live topic, especially in these days of difficult supplies. Let us try and evaluate the health risk from smoking. Tobacco can be done without-that seems to be one fact. Another is that tobacco smoke contains at least a couple of poisons, nicotine and carbon monoxide. It also contains tarry substances that have been under suspicion of causing cancer, Nicotine is quite a potent poison taken in big enough, quantities. True, you only get a little in smoking-about an average of 0.6 per cent. in smoke from dry tobacco; much more from damp tobacco. But if you are a heavy smoker, you get a little nicotine a lot of times every day. It can have a cumulative effect. Cigarette smoking has more effect than cigar or pipe smoking, as the nicotine volatilises ‘less in cigarettes. Inhaling smoke into the lungs allows most of the nicotine (about 85 per cent.) to. be absorbed; dodging lung inhalation as much as possible greatly reduces the absorption of nicotine. As far as I can discover this is the danger from heavy smoking: it irritates the nose, throat, voice box and bronchial tree, and may set up and keep going catatrhal conditions there, This gives rise to coughing. You can pick out the serious smokers in the early mornings; they go about coughing and barking till they clear their mucous membranes. In some it has an effect on appetite, dulling it. Many non-smokers hate to have indiscriminate smoking going on in diningrooms. Smdking also has an effect on the nervous system. The speed of nerve messages is interfered with; those to the heart muscle have their timing upset. The beat becomes erratic, or faster, or races wherleyer one is exercising or undergoing any excitement. Similarly the nervous control of breathing is upset,

and shortness of breath is common under any strain. These are’ some of the effects of smoking. Heavy smokers occasionally try experiments on themselves, giving up the habit for a while. Many then gain weight, have better appetite, and feel better generally. Control of the nerves is better. They lose the trembling fingertips, and have less excitability under emotional or other strain; in other words, steadiness improves. On the Credit Side Now what can we say on the credit side for tobacco? It does help relaxation. It has an action on the adrenal glands, increasing the blood sugar concentretion, and raising the rate of combustion of the sugar. You feel relieved of fatigue and irritability, just as you do after having a meal. Are the heart, nerve and throat irritations productive of permanent damage? There is no real proof of this, though you will find writers making dogmatic statements of heart damage and cancer incidence in smokers, It has not been proven scientifically. . What stand are we to take over tobacco? Moderation for adults, abstinence for young people. There is general agreement that tobacco is bad for the young, retarding learning and spoiling achievement in sport and games. No tobacco until 21 years or older would be a good rule. In sizing up matters for oneself, one has to balance pleasure, relaxation and sociability against the risk of certain ill-effects found in some people, and already outlined for you, and the surety of habit-formation. It is a hard habit to stop once acquired. But the choice remains a personal matter until the day medical science-really decides whether permanent damage occurs to the lungs or not. That is not proved yet.